John Day leaders hope fresh, local vegetables can help save their city

The wastewater treatment plant in John Day is 72 years old, in the floodplain and failing. So city leaders plan to build a new one.

That new facility will create millions of gallons of grey water — water that is clean enough to drink once treated, but less than desirable because it comes from showers and toilets — every year. Rather than just drain that water, city leaders want to use it to improve the town and, maybe, the town’s finances.

“We could use it for agricultural irrigation,” said city manager Nick Green. “We could use it for industrial re-use, heating and cooling, landscape irrigation, and of course crop production.”

People liked the crop production idea, so back in 2019 the City of John Day used $680,000 in community development money to build a large, state-of-the-art greenhouse. The idea was to use grey water to grow fresh vegetables for local schools, grocery stores and restaurants, thus improving livability.